The present invention relates to a e-piece solid golf ball. More particularly, it relates to a three-piece solid golf ball having long flight distance, by accomplishing high launch angle and low spin amount immediately after hitting, while maintaining soft and good shot feel when hitting at a low head speed.
Many types of golf balls are commercially selling, but they are typically classified into solid golf balls such as two-piece golf ball, three-piece golf ball and the like, and thread wound golf balls. The solid golf balls generally occupy the greater part of the golf ball market, because they inherently have longer flight distance than the thread wound golf balls and have been improved to have soft and good shot feel at the time of hitting as good as the thread wound golf ball. The three-piece golf ball, when compared with the two-piece golf ball, has better shot feel while maintaining excellent flight performance, because the three-piece golf ball can vary hardness distribution.
The three-piece solid golf balls are those placing an intermediate layer between the core and the cover layer constituting the two-piece solid golf ball, and have been described in Japanese Patent Kokoku Publication No. 8301/1995; Japanese Patent Kokai Publication Nos. 24085/1995, 10357/1997 and 313643/1997; and Japanese Patent Nos. 2570587 and 2658811. In these golf balls, it has been accomplished to improve the shot feel at the time of hitting, while maintaining excellent flight performance, by using thermoplastic resin, such as ionomer resin, thermoplastic elastomer or mixtures thereof, for the intermediate layer, to adjust a hardness of the core, intermediate layer and cover and a hardness distribution thereof to a proper range.
However, in the golf balls, there has been problem that the shot feel is hard and poor when hitting at a low head speed by a driver or an iron club, and the problem has never been considered.
A main object of the present invention is to provide a three-piece solid golf ball having long flight distance, by accomplishing high launch angle and low spin amount immediately after hitting, while maintaining soft and good shot feel when hitting at a low head speed by a driver or an iron club.
According to the present invention, the object described above has been accomplished by placing an intermediate layer between a center and an outer layer to make a three-piece solid golf ball, and adjusting a hardness and hardness distribution of the center, a hardness difference between the center and the intermediate layer and a hardness difference between the intermediate layer and the outer layer to specified ranges, thereby providing a three-piece solid golf ball having long flight distance, by accomplishing high launch angle and low spin amount immediately after hitting, while maintaining soft and good shot feel when hitting at low head speed by a driver or an iron club.
This object as well as other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following description with reference to the accompanying drawings.